MCHENRY COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) — Republican voters came together on Friday in the northwest suburbs for a fundraiser featuring President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law.
Attendees spoke about how they think the first month of the administration has gone.
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With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, the party, historically in the minority in Illinois, gathered to commemorate and enjoy their newfound majority status in Washington.
It is a majority, that they say, comes with a mandate for more sweeping change.
The ballroom was filled with Republican donors and voters, with MAGA ballcaps and Trump t-shirts proudly displaying their current sentiment. That sentiment being: they are enthusiastic about their current situation.
“I think it’s shining a light for everyone in Illinois to understand we can do this,” former Republican Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey said. ‘We can get things fixed again.”
“I think the man is wonderful,” Dee Dee Lavin said. “I just think God gave us a good person to lead this country.”
The McHenry County GOPAC is boosting the base, and President Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the former co-chair of the Republican National Committee, flew into town on something of a victory lap.
The first-quarter pep rally of sorts comes at the close of the fifth full week of President Trump’s second term. It’s been a warp-speed turn to the right, marked with immigration roundups and deportations. Also, dozens upon dozens of executive orders, ending birthright citizenship and the immediate freezing of federal funding.
Many of the actions are now tied up or halted in federal courts, with judges flagging serious constitutional questions.
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“He is the head of the executive, and he is, as an executive, taking control of that branch. And I think that’s admirable,” McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio said.
Thousands of federal workers have been fired, slashed off the payroll, and some frantically re-hired by Elon Musk and his young team at the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.”
“I think the people are going to appreciate what’s being uncovered and how it’s being handled when this is all over,” Bailey said. “Those people who live on the government payroll are career civil servants, tens of thousands of them have been let go… I think a lot of them were new hires.”
Independent voter Isis Carswell didn’t vote for Trump, but she said she sees opportunity.
“I’m okay with slashing jobs, but if they’re saying they’re going to mail everyone $5,000 stimulus checks, that is not a way to boost the economy,” Carswell said. “Higher wages for everyone would be the best way to do it.”
In a deeply blue state, a spokesperson for the Illinois Democratic Party, Gwen Pepin, said in a statement Friday night, in part, “We think it’s past time for Lara, her father-in-law, and the Illinois GOP to focus less on targeting DEI, immigrants and the trans community, and more on lowering pries for working families like President Trump promised to do on day one.”
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